Jack and the Beanstalk
Old English Fairy Tale - Joseph Jacobs rewrote
Once upon a time, there lived a widow woman and her son, Jack, on their small farm in the country.
Every day, Jack would help his mother with the chores - chopping the wood, weeding the garden and milking the cow. But despite all their hard work, Jack and his mother were very poor with barely enough money to keep themselves fed.
"What shall we do, what shall we do?" said the widow, one spring day. "We don't have enough money to buy seed for the farm this year! We must sell our cow, Old Bess, and with the money buy enough seed to plant a good crop."
"All right, mother," said Jack, "it's market-day today. I'll go into town and sell Bessy."
So Jack took the cow's halter in his hand, walked through the garden gate and headed off toward town. He hadn't gone far when he met a funny-looking, old man who said to him, "Good morning, Jack."
"Good morning to you," said Jack, wondering how the little, old man knew his name.
